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tv   [untitled]    December 3, 2012 11:30pm-12:00am PST

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one person went to county jail, part of the reason we bring that up is it's nice for the staff at the different venues to know there are a lot of thefts going on and that's really what we want to have a heightened awareness so that the patrons when they're coming to the city to enjoy their night, they're not having all their things taken, somebody's lap top was stolen, on the 16th at 2 a.m., a patron leaving vessel lounge was stabbed twice on a street robbery, looking at here the staff did absolutely nothing wrong and that's not why i'm bringing it up, but here it is, i'd like people to know, be aware of their surroundings, so if there was a robbery just down the street, just for the staff, the substitute
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>> this is christopher burnett, i am the applicant. can you hear me fine? yeah, so i also represent the building owner, i'm the managing member of the loc that owns the building as well as the managing building of the loc which is the tenant, so i am the sole member of both the loc's and i just wanted to briefly describe our business to you and our business model and what we're planning to do in the building, it is a historic building that's housed and a place of entertainment for a long time, i know a lot of you have heard of the purple onion and maybe you have heard that it's closed, we're looking to renovate the building, i have plans available, i'm not sure if you have the plans but we're looking to keep the historic nay xhur to have building, the historic preservation society has been involved in keeping the facade, pretty much keeping the facade
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how it was when the building was initially constructed. we are looking to renovate the interior to just provide access both ada to the basement which it currently does not do as well as to come into compliance with the fire department requirements, currently it had a hand shake easement with the neighbor's parking lot for getting people out of the building in case of an emergency, we're looking to create staircase that are compliant, the ada lift as well as bringing a lot of the other elements up to code, it's going to be culinary based, our prep kitchen is for the type of volume which we're experiencing which is a good problem to have but we're looking to have a place where we can increase our prep and the kitchen space here is quite large, it takes up a whole floor of the building, it's around a thousand square
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foot kitchen and it's going to be our production kitchen both on-site, catering, as well as doing some off-site prep work for some other facility, one of the things we're focusing on is the cured meat aspect, it is the hazard analysis, critical control points plan to help reduce, hopefully eliminate food born illness, we're focusing on a lot of culinary aspects, i have my chef here with me as well as a couple of other advisers, we're looking to do culinary classes in the space as well as lectures, trying to teach people about the food movement that's been occurring and getting a little more momentum, we're hoping in addition to that, we've reached out to various organizations that have been interested in using the space for culinary space classes, parties.com is interested in doing cooking
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classes and different events there, we've reached out to some other organizations, the comedy aspect we like to keep alive there, the history of the space, i think it's important to keep that aspect going, so we're excited to be able to renovate it, bring it back to life and still provide comedy there, reach out to people would have performed there and help coordinate the events and they are definitely excited that the place is going to be cleaned up, renovated and just brought back to -- hopefully brought back to its previous glory, some other aspects that i like to point out on the event space is doing some literary events, we're excited about being in that neighborhood, the jackson square historic district, some to have literary history that has been involved in the neighborhood, we've reached out to city life and the dave ed gar's youth writing program in
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engaging them, it's preliminary, neither has signed or sent letters of intent or anything like that, you know, and most people want to see the space before they really engage us fully, but we're excited to bring them in as well as do some readings and book signings, another aspect that we're looking forward to doing is some music, primarily initially at least we have engaged in spao*ir music groups which 800 students in san francisco, they have been a great group, i only just started being involved with them, i've gone to their shows, they have various thing, voices, cabaret kids, i spoke with victor and stephen who are the directors there, we're excited about possibly bringing them into the space as well.
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these are secondary uses, the primary use for the space will be culinary based and we also want to use obviously the comedy aspect are the two primary roles for the space, i wanted to bring up the possibility of having those other aspects as well because they're personally exciting to me and i would like to make sure that i cover everything that we're looking to do and not try to say we won't do something and then ultimately bring in one of those organizations. i would like to see if there's any comments you have. i do have some more information on the business side of it for the production kitchen as well as the full service restaurant. i'm not sure if that's relevant at this time so i would like you to take the time to look at the plans and any questions you might have. >> i know you haven't picked a name yet. >> i have picked a name. >> it says you haven't. >> i know, we weren't really wanting to release the name just because of publicity, i'm willing to share it.
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>> you're on tv, just so you know. >> yeah, i'm aware. you know, it -- it's looking to be called dock rickets which is a marine biologist, a local person in the community, he has been a teacher, a guru of marine biology, he is someone who i think sort of will help sort of define our space in teaching and sort of bringing in the local community, bringing in the marine environment as well as just the local ecology, he was a founder of a lot of those fields and we feel that he describes kind of our concept as well as just sort of what we're about there. >> okay. what i was saying is that i'm glad someone's taking on the purple onion, the purple onion was e clastic, it's an important venue, i'm glad you're improving it, i'm glad
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you are recreating it into something wonderful, i'm glad you're considering musical groups like the students and that you're going to continue doing comedy. sound like you have a lot of work in front of you. bringing it up to ada access is a lot of work. do you have any idea when you might open? >> i can optimistically tell you a date but i know i will not hit that date. i think, you know, we are going for june, but that can easily push to late summer, if not beyond, you know, our plans have all been finalized, we are in the permit process right now. we are waiting for the historic preservation society's green light, they have verbally okayed it, we're going to issue two separate permit, one for internal and one for exterior so we're not delayed. >> do you intend to memorialize
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the purple onion in any way. er >> we cannot use the name, it has been trademarked fwr the previous owner, he placed that in september and has taken it with him, we have not reached out to him to possibly purchase that name but legally, we're unable to use it. >> okay, thank you. >> hi, chris. >> hi. >> thank you for coming in and i've been to the purple onion, i attended a comedy festival there so i'm glad you're taking over and renovating the place. are you intending to increase the space at all? >> it's defined by the concrete walls to some extent, i don't think we're capable of increasing it, we're reducing it with the ada compliant bathrooms as well as the wheelchair lift, the square footage is going down, the
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occupancy load is staying relatively the same. there is a calculation on the plans that pegs it at -- i have to double check the number, i believe it's around 96. we are hoping to do more of a seated venue, so that's going to reduce it down to more like the 50 mark, so i think the square footage also is being eaten up by a lot of server station for the food aspect because the fact that it is in the basement, we're going to have to have a dumb waiter system, it's two dumb waiters to make sure food is delivered on time, hot, you know, and how our chef would like it to be delivered. so, i would say the answer to that, we are most likely reducing the size. >> my second question is on your application under neighborhood contact, it says you are currently scheduling public forums to success your project, what else have you done since your application thus far reaching out to the community. >> we sent an invite to our
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neighborhood meeting to about 144 people, all residents within 100 feet including, let's see, including a list of business owners, neighborhood associations, i have the mailing list, i'm not sure if you were forwarded on it or not, i included the entertain commission as well as central station, i also went door to door and introduced myself to the local business owners to describe what we were looking to do and sort of meet them and see if there was any concern they might have as we sort of move forward and hopefully address those concerns before they were brought up and try to eliminate any problems we might have in the future because obviously when somebody sees a new neighbor coming in, there's a tendency to be concerned. >> and when is the event going to take place? >> we held the first meeting already. >> you did? >> yes. it went fine. i was hoping for a little
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better turn-out. >> when was it held? >> you have a description of it in your packet in this tab. >> i saw it. >> it's an outreach meeting? >> yes. it included the meeting notes, the meeting minutes was included in that as well as an invite, a sign-in sheet as well as the mailing list, so just to briefly go over the meeting minutes, you know, we have the date which was the 13th. >> that's okay, we have it in packet. >> i would encourage you, you abut next to chinatown, it didn't sound like any of the groups you listed were there, i'm sure some of the property owners are residents or property owners within chinatown, i would encourage you to reach out to that community since you're going to be a direct neighbor impacting it. >> absolutely, and i would like to hear a recommendation for a group that you would think i should engage directly with.
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>> you can try the chinatown community center, they have an office on clay in between kerny and montgomery. >> okay. >> and i would also like the encourage you to do more outreach to neighborhood organizations like north beach neighbors, the telegraph hill dwellers because this area does have a lot of very engaged members of the public and it is best to do the outreach and not have them ask for the out reach, it's a better result in general, check out the neighborhood organizations and go to their meetings and present your plans to them, i'm sure they'll be very receptive. >> the north beach neighborhood association had a meeting which unfortunately i missed the cutoff for, so i have engaged them and i'll definitely reach
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out to some of the residents, is there a radius that you would recommend on neighborhood associations. >> there's several organizations in north beach, north beach neighbors, telegraph hill neighbors, there's also a business association on broadway, just -- i would say as many people that you can reach out to because entertainment and new development is a very hot topic in that neighborhood and it would just really behoove you to reach out to anyone you can. i'm sure supervisor chu's office would be happy to provide you with information of all the organizations there and there's even a not for profit in the area that may want to engage with you in some sort of fundraising or something like that just to -- in the future, i just think that would all be very helpful in north beach. >> and i have definitely contacted the district supervisor, i also went in
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again to try to schedule a meeting, it's been difficult to get face time, but i am continuing to try that, broadway, the business association, i had a phone conversation with one of those organizations as well, and i'm going to include all of these people that's in my abc license as well and i'm doing a preap meeting for that as well. >> okay, thank you. >> thank you. >> so, i move to approve -- no, i don't? >> is there any public comment or the police, would you like to -- officer mathias. >> hello, steve mathias from central station, i met with steve burnett and we went through the old purple onion and went over the different plans, following their state of
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business plan, we'd like to request the following, they retain the security video that he's already setting up for the building for a minimum of 30 days and provide to sfpd upon request, and then 2 second one is we would like a hands-on approach to where the area is not sublet to third parties or promoters with at least one manager on site in control of the venue. >> would you like them to notify your department for special events? >> what we would like is just in talking with mr. burnett, i think that the plan as far as different ideas, it sounds fantastic and i would like to see the purple onion come ba k, we just want to make sure that it's under his control, i've noticed that other places, you know, i haven't had contact with him in the past but somebody to basically give up the keys and have at it and
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leave, we would like to have a manager on site if they're going to have a third party come in. >> i think that he will have a manager on site. i think based on his plan, he's not giving up the keys to anybody, but also based on his plan and all the groups he's engaging, i think he's going to have most of his entertainment will be outside promoters, if you consider the kids with the school, the music, that would be an outside promoter in our judgment, i think that's reasonable for a manager on site. is he going to have cameras outside, is that part of it? yeah? okay. >> with that, i move to -- >> is there any other public comment? sorry, seeing none, now we'll go to you. er
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>> i move to approve this permit with the two conditions that were put on by the police department that the security video be recorded and available to sfpd for 30 days and that there's a manager on site for any special events. >> second. >> i second. >> commissioner akers. >> i second. >> commissioner akers? >> aye. >> commissioner perez? >> aye. >> commissioner hyde? >> aye. >> commissioner joseph? >> aye. >> commissioner tan? >> aye. >> commissioner lee? >> aye. >> good luck. >> alright, moving on, we're going to item b, felice swapp, dbasf jazz, sf jazz is a non-profit organization that provides jazz education
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programs and jazz music performances, it's one of the largest performing arts organizations in the bay area and presents events such as jazz festivals, summer jazz, 205 franklin right around the corner between haze and fell is a brand new performing art center building, it's 35 thousand square feet, educational spaces, the building is new construction and replaces an automobile shop. sf jazz has invested millions of dollars, several years and several outreach over the last cum of year, there's been in communication of opposition and sfpd recommends approval of the project. >> i'm the executive operating director of sf jazz and after about 30 years of performance here in san francisco started
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by our founder, ronald klein, my co-executive director who is here with us as well, we're thrilled to be at this moment where we're able to bring a venue, a home for jazz, a freestanding institution of education, of food, of community, of jazz, music to san francisco, so we're thrilled to be at this moment. for the past 30 years as many of you will know, we have presented the san francisco jazz festival here in the city, we have believed in a philosophy of the combination of high quality art as well as rational business, so believing that a sound business model is important to our success and because of all of that, that history of activity, i believe we're at this place where we're able to successfully be a few weeks away from opening this sf jazz center on franklin and fell streets, we have put a lot of thought over many years of
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what we feel is a new form of cultural institution, so of course our site is located at the edge of the performing arts district so it brings jazz alongside the symphony hall, the ballet, the opera but it connects into a thriving neighborhood community and is accessible to public transit, all of that was important to us as we designed it and we wanted to truly feel of a clear form of institution, where it started with a community for us, you'll see it's a transparent building, we wanted it to be a building architecturally that allowed people to feel invited, to feel as if they could come in for a class, a performance and really feel a part of the site. it's at franklin and fell, the center of the building is the robert n minor auditorium, it is within a concrete box and it is a 700 seat performing arts style auditorium, it's a surround look as you can see
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where the performers can be further into the audience, there's a flexible configuration that we've developed with our architect and our designer to have an experience that we felt was tight and responsive to the needs of jazz that was important for the artist engagement with the audiences, so reflecting this design of community all the way through the actual space. looking at just the entire layout of the site, you can see where the concrete box na surrounds the auditorium is surrounded in turn by an l shape of support areas, those support areas include our ground floor lobby, an ensemble room and our education space, they are about 100 piece ensemble room for rehearsals, classes, our classroom all stars, our community band that will perform, rehearse and learn together on monday night,
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as well as some practice rooms, our cafe which we are in partnership with charles fan to deliver fantastic food to the area and to ourselves hopefully, and then on the second floor is our dressing rooms as well as our upstairs lobbies. the third floor of the building will house all of our administrative offices, all of our sf jazz staff will be located on-site. it's under construction. we are a few weeks away, there's a raft of people who have been coming together to make this happen, we have up to a few hundred folks some days doing the final teaches as we speak, in total, what this means to us and what we feel is this premise of finding a home, of having a footprint where
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instead of being a nomad i -- nomadic institution [inaudible] it steps from the western addition and connected by public transit, all of that helps us fulfill this mission and the music we are all here to serve, so this is our center. >> thank you. >> i for one just want to say how exciting i think this project is. i've been watching your building go up for mothers or since the project broke ground. i love jazz. it's what i started with, the fact that you can put it all in one place is amazing. i think this is awesome and i wish you the best with it. >> thank you.
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>> alright. so, do we have any public comment or the police, anyone want to comment on the sf jazz? hello? >> my name is mount alan, i'm the events director for sf jazz and i'm here to recognize some of the support that we've been able to amass throughout the community, i would just like to introduce a few people in respect of the agenda that you have, we'd like to keep it tight beth rubenstein is executive director for out of siekt, loraine is the community school coordinator for the fall reveer middle school, christine harris is the chair for the board of directors of the jazz heritage center and marylan
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coral is the assistant principal and donald savoy is the director for the civic community benefits district, nan key ton is the director, internal affairs for the san francisco symphony, and assistant managing director , and out of this group, we would like to hear from two of them if we may. would you like to come up, please, beth. thanks. >> hello, everyone, i'm the director of the out of sights and we're honored to be partnered with sf jazz and speak on their behalf, we work with teenage youths would don't have access to arts